Irony abounds in the struggle taking place on the Southside of Chicago, where Barack Obama first cut his teeth as an Alinskyite community organizer. His desire to have a monument to himself in the form of the "Obama Presidential Center" (not a library, and not part of the National Archives System) is roiling community organizations who are not convinced that their park should be sacrificed to build a large shrine to the 44th president.

In fact, revisions to the initial plans have not mollified the opposition. Revised plans unveiled made the project even taller and more grandiose (and less white):

When plans for the privately financed and privately controlled center were announced, evidently, it was presumed that the grateful citizens of Chicago would be thrilled to offer their city-owned park land in tribute. But the community organizers were not so sure that reducing the amount of park space is in their interest. In fact, Friends of the Parks, a well established civic organization that had previously prevented appropriation of park land by a museum to honor filmmaker George Lucas, expressed its concerns, as did other groups representing neighborhood residents.

Ex-president Obama was so concerned that he addressed concerns in a talk with community organizers at the end of February.

Friends of the Parks was not impressed. In an email to members yesterday, the organization seemed to feel that Obama was talking down to them:

Friend of the parks,

There is so much to say in response to Mr. Obama's speech last week. Unfortunately the tone of the dialogue about the Obama Presidential Center is not living up to the standards that the Obama Foundations says it cares about in terms of disagreeing with one another while still being civil.